Computers have evolved from early system designs that required large amounts of space and occupied entire rooms, to desk-top personal computers that are smaller, faster and have more memory than their predecessors. More recent advancements in computers include the development of portable laptop and notebook computers, hand-held computing devices such as personal digital assistants (PDA's), and wearable computers, as examples.
Notebook-size and palm-size computers are typically battery powered for portable user applications. These smaller computers challenge the art in demands for conflicting goals of miniaturization, higher speed, performance, flexibility, and longer life between battery charges.
Often, it is desired to couple portable computers to peripherals in a desk-top environment, for example, when a corporate executive returns to the office from a business trip. The portable computer user may wish to connect to a larger monitor and keyboard, a local area network (LAN) and/or the Internet, printers, camera, and speakers, as examples. The user may also wish to connect the portable computer to another computer such as a desk-top computer, a hard disk drive, or a floppy drive, for example. Some recent portable computer designs implement this connection upon return to the office by the use of docking stations and port replicators.
A docking station 112, shown in FIG. 1, is a desktop accessory adapted to couple a portable computer 110 such as a notebook computer to other computing devices such as mouse 118, full size monitor 114, full size keyboard 120, as examples. Docking station 112 includes a slot 116 for receiving the portable computer 110.
FIG. 2 shows a back view of a notebook computer 110. Portable computer 110 includes a plurality of connectors, for legacy port interfaces 120 122, 124, 126, and 128 which may be for coupling the portable computer 110 to a printer, mouse, external keyboard, monitor, other drives or computers, USB, Ethernet, and other ports, as examples. Notebook computer 110 includes a connector 130 for coupling to a docking station 112 or port replicator. Connector 130 includes a large number of pins, e.g., 200 to 400 pins. Connector 130 is adapted to carry signals and transmit I/O data between the docking station 112 and the portable computer 110.
A port replicator 232 is another type of portable computer peripheral accessory, shown in FIG. 3. A user can leave a printer, mouse, full-size monitor and other peripherals connected to the port replicator 232, and quickly connect to these peripherals by engaging the portable computer 210 with the port replicator 232. As with a docking station 112, a port replicator 232 also requires a large-pin-count connector on the port replicator 232 and portable computer 210, to transfer information between the port replicator 232 and the portable computer 110.
A problem with prior art portable computers is that a large connector 130 is required to handle the large number of signals when coupling to a docking station or port replicator. The connectors 130 used today have a high pin count, e.g. 200 to 400 pins, and require a large amount of space. These connectors 130 are expensive from a cost and real-estate standpoint. Furthermore, the more pins a connector has, the more likely it is that a pin will get bent or become damaged, requiring replacement, or even the replacement of the portable computer, docking station or port replicator.
What is needed in the art is a docking solution having a smaller pin count connector than in prior art portable computing systems.